The Tree of Life
by KinkyKamui
Summary: Life is like the growth of a tree. Like a tree has to endure throughout the seasons, you must endure too. No matter what inconveniences you may face, you have to keep walking forward, and only then, you can achieve your true dream, because to endure and to never give up, is what a true Shinobi entails. [One-shot!] [Fast and drastic scene changes]


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.

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_Walking Forward_

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A boy, void of emotion, sat on a dull swing in an empty white plain. He had spiky hair, a face adorned with three whisker marks on each cheek, and wore a short-sleeved shirt and shorts.

Everything around him was white, even himself and his clothes, no color or whatsoever. He just stared at the empty space in front him, which seemed to be ongoing with no end to it.

He heard footsteps behind him, but he didn't look. They came closer and closer, and he still made no indication towards the sound.

As the seconds went by, a boy, the same age as him, walked past him. He had chin-length black hair, which was spiky in the back, with a bit of a pale skin. He wore a black, short-sleeved shirt and white shorts. He also had a twig in his hands, hanging loosely at his side, scraping the white ground below him.

The black-haired boy suddenly stopped when he was few feet away from the spiky haired boy, and slowly turned around. His eyes weren't visible, because his hair overshadowed them, but his face was void of emotion too.

They stared at each other for what seemed like hours. Then the black-haired boy slowly walked up to the spiky haired boy and offered him the twig.

The spiky haired boy looked at the twig, his hand slowly reached towards it. When finally grasping it in his hand, he looked towards the black-haired boy. The blond boy's eyes turned from white to a deep oceanic blue. His hair gained a golden sun-kissed color, and the color in his face and body returned too.

Space and time stopped as the boys grew a few years in age. The black-haired boy turned around and started to walk away. The now blond-haired boy stared at him for a while and slowly got of the swing, which creaked at the sudden motion, and started following him.

As they walked and walked, the empty white space around them slowly morphed into a forest. Blue sandals formed around their feet. Also, a band of metal plated blue clothes formed around their heads. The metals had spiraled leaf symbols engraved in them.

The boys' clothes changed too. The blond-haired one's changed from their colorless fabric to an orange and blue jumpsuit. The black-haired boy's shirt changed to a blue, high-collared shortsleeve.

The seemingly summer breeze blew through the forest, making their hair sway in the winds. A leaf sprouted on top of the twig, as itself also grew a bit. The black-haired boy slowly came to a stop and the blond finally caught up to him. They were only one feet apart now.

The black-haired boy slowly let a small smirk grace his face and the blond-haired boy's eyes lit up a for a split-second. They didn't see each others face, but they could feel each others emotions, by just being in each others presence.

They started walking again and the landscape shifted to a misty grassland this time. Two silhouettes could be seen in the mist. One tall and one small.

The tall figure had bandages wrapped around the lower part of his face and a large menacing broadsword on his back, he stood there, glaring in front of him.

The small figure next to him had long hair in a bun and loose locks of hair framing their face. The person wore a plain white mask with thin curved eye-holes and a red wavy design at the place of the mouth. It also had a weird symbol engraved on the forehead, what seemed to represent the mist.

The tall figure's bandages slowly teared itself apart, revealing a row of spiky teeth. The smaller figure's mask started to crack, revealing a boy with an androgynous looking face with a sad smile on it.

The two boys slowly came closer and closer, until they almost collided with the other figures. The boys didn't stop walking though. They didn't collide either, because the two figures, who were previously covered by the mist, seemed to be ethereal, and the boys walked straight through them.

The two ethereal figures turned to look towards the boys' backs, and then looked towards each other. The tall figure's face gained a sad look, before it turned to an expression that was full of pride, and the small figure's face changed to a happy and forever grateful look. They both cracked their last smile towards each other, before their essence faded away.

The landscape turned back to the previous forest and both boys were still walking. As time went by, the black-haired boy got farther and farther away. The blond boy tried to catch up to him, but the black-haired boy only distanced further, till he disappeared out of the blond's view.

Lying on the ground at the place of disappearance, was the black-haired boy's headband. The blond boy inched closer towards it and picked it up. He stared at it for a while before his gaze shifted to the twig in his hands. He dug a small hole in the ground and planted the twig there. He put the headband in his pocket and walked away.

While walking, he collided in the back of a tall man. As the man turned around, the blond took notice of the man's features. The man had long, white spiky hair in a long ponytail down his back, with two bangs framing his face and two red lines going down his eyes. The man smiled at the blond and ruffled his hair.

The man turned around again and started to walk away. The blond followed him through the forest before coming to a wasteland. Big gates formed in the distance. They walked through the gates as they reached them, but the blond had the sudden urge to turn around.

As he did so, a large mountain caught his attention. Four faces were carved into the mountain. He looked at them, one by one. As he reached the fourth face, a sudden warm feeling made its way into his heart, making the corner of his lips twitch upwards.

The blond turned around and started following after the man again. As they walked, the blond grew a few years in age, turning into a young man. The cloth of his headband changed from blue to black. His clothes turned from the orange and blue to a different styled jumpsuit, which was orange and black in color.

The wasteland formed to a desert. The man came to a stop – so did the blond. The man looked at the blond and smiled with a sense of pride. He made a waving motion with his hand towards the blond and they parted their ways.

The blond started walking again across the sandy dunes of the desert. A figure could be seen in the distance, but they gave a menacing feeling to the blond. The figure had its back turned to the blond, it was a young man, probably the same age as him, with short spiky red hair. He also wore a large gourd on his back.

As the blond got closer, the menacing feeling slowly started to fade away. The redhead tensed as the blond put a hand on his shoulder. He turned around, only to see a blond young man, the same age as him, looking back at him.

The blond uttered a few words, which shocked the redhead to the core.

"You are not alone."

The redhead's hate slowly disappeared and a sadness became visible in his eyes. A lone tear welled up in his left eye. The symbol of love displayed above it for the world to see. The redhead finally turned happy and a small smile graced his face.

Hesitantly, he raised his hand. Bits of sand started to pick up and made circular motions around the blond's hand. The sand slowly lifted the blond's hand, making them grasp each others hand. The redhead walked through the blond and disappeared into nothingness and the blonde continued his journey.

The desert turned back to the grassland, but this time it was adorned with a river. The blond boy could see an object at the riverbank and walked towards it. As the boy came closer, the object revealed to be a picture book. The blond opened the book and looked at the pages.

They contained portraits of a black-haired and a white-haired boy at the opposite ends of the book, but the center pages of the book were blank. The blond felt the need to tightly hold on to the book, as his conscience told him it held an importance to a certain someone.

As the blond looked around, he saw the same black-haired boy as in the book. The boy desperately looked around for something and the blond figured that something was the very same book he held in his hand. He walked up to the black-haired boy to get his attention.

The black-haired boy noticed the blond and gave him his most possible fake-smile, which unnerved the blond somewhat. Then the black-haired boy's gaze shifted to the blond's hand as a familiar object caught his attention. The blond noticed this and held out the hand that was holding the book.

The black-haired boy quickly snatched the book out of the blond's hands and his eyes lit up for a second, before a conflicted look came across his face. The blond noticed this and held out two fingers. The black-haired boy didn't understand the gesture, but the blond motioned towards the black-haired boy's hand. The boy seemed to understand and held out two fingers as well. They locked their fingers with each other as a sign of acknowledging their friendship.

It finally came through the black-haired boy, and this time he gave a real smile as recognition. He opened his book on the blank page and took out a pencil. Finally remembering what his intentions were with this page, he began drawing with his newly recovered emotions. The final product of the picture was the black and white-haired boys locking their hands with smiles on their face.

The black-haired boy slowly dispersed into ink, that got carried away with the blowing winds, but not before sending one last grateful smile towards the blond.

With a new-found conviction, the blond started his path again. The grassy lands and river slowly turned to trees. The blond jumped on one of the branches and started hopping through the trees. The wind blew his hair behind him, carrying the fresh smell of nature with it.

A sudden hand on his shoulder made him stop and look behind him, but there was no one there. A feeling of sadness went through him and he clenched his chest at the place of his heart. Tears started to gather in his eyes, but they didn't fall.

He hopped down from the tree and slowly walked forward. Not noticing the spectral figure of a familiar tall, white-haired man forming behind him. The man faded away leaving a book in his place.

The blond's ears twitched as he thought he heard something. He turned around and saw a small brown book. He walked towards it and picked it up.

_Tale of an Utterly Gutsy __Shinobi_

The blond flipped the book open with one hand and put his other hand in the pocket of his pants. He began walking forward again, while reading the book on his never-ending road.

The landscape changed several times. From the trees to the rocky paths hidden in caves, from the high peeks of the mountains, to the snowy lands of tundras, back to the wasteland.

When the blond finished his book he finally took notice of his surroundings. He stood in a crater surrounded by walls. Four familiar faces were carved into the mountainside behind him. The blond looked in front of him again with the intend to continue walking forward, but a man blocking his road caught his attention.

The man had mid-length, spiky orange hair. Purple ripple-patterned eyes and multiple piercings adorning his face. He wore a black, high-collared robe with red clouds on it. His face held no emotion like the blond opposite of him.

The blond's blue eyes changed to a yellow color with bar-like pupils. Red pigment forming around them.

Yellow eyes locked gazes with purple.

Neither moved.

A slow breeze was felt in the open space.

Weapons formed in their hands.

_A diamond-shaped dagger in the blond's hand._

_A black rod in the orange man's hand._

Both dashed towards each other.

Both made a slashing motion with their weapons.

They now stood back to back. The orange haired man fell to one knee, before finally giving in, as he fell face-down motionless on the ground. The blond didn't turn to look back at the man. He kept walking forward, until he saw two figures up ahead.

A man and a woman.

The man had chin-length red hair covering one eye, the visible eye was the same purple ripple-patterned eye as the orange haired one's. The woman had chin-length blue hair with a large origami flower in it, grey eyes with violet eyeshadow and a piercing under her lower lip.

Their impassive gazes locked with his. The blond slowly walked towards them. He reached behind his back and pulled a book out of his pouch. He handed them the book. The man and woman stared at the book for a bit before turning to the blond.

The woman held out her hand and paper flew from everywhere around her hand. They morphed into each other and formed a bunch of roses, which the woman handed to the blond boy. The woman smiled at him with a hopeful look as her body became transparent and disappeared.

The blond turned towards the man – who had a guilty look on his face. The man handed the book back to the blond and smiled at him. His eyes were full of believe and conviction. All because of the blond boy who was standing here before him. The man held out his index and middle finger and poked the boy on the forehead. A bright glow enveloped the boy and as it faded away, the man had disappeared too.

The blond started walking again, and the cycle continued itself. Slowly reaching the base of a giant tree, he put down the flowers next to a big stone, where he carved the symbolization of his teacher. He put down his book next to the flowers and turned around.

Walking forward the never-ending cycle.

The surrounding environment changed to a snowy land and soft, white ice particles fell down from the sky. A white cloak formed around the blond, as well as bandages over his right eye. The blond came past – what looked like – a three-headed mountain. He turned his head towards the mountain and stared at it for a while, before continuing his walk.

While walking, the ground moved and cracks appeared. Rocky structures came out of the ground, forming tall mountains. There was not a trace left of the snow, his cloak and bandages shed themselves, and all that could be seen were two rocky mountains connected by a large gray bridge.

The blond stepped on the bridge and a vague feeling washed over him. He crouched down and traced his fingers over the surface of the bridge. A soft breeze made itself known, and out of nowhere, black fire came to life, encircling the bridge. The bridge collapsed and the blond fell in to the depths of the deep waters below him, darkness enveloping him.

Small beams of light became visible, and slowly all the light returned to the blond's vision. He looked around him, taking in the beauty of the plant life surrounding him. He walked down the narrow path in front of him, following the call of a force, which grew stronger with every step.

A small waterfall, which debouched into a small spring, came into sight, but the blond kept walking, till he came to the center of the spring. The force was now stronger than ever, and a silhouette inside the waterfall, made itself known. Slowly, a person identical to the blond, came out of the waterfall. He looked exactly the same as the blond, except for his eyes, which were a mix of dark grey and red.

The blond's dark clone confidently smirked at him, but that smirk slowly turned into a malicious scowl, filled with hate. The counterpart's expression changed again, this time to a sad frown, as tears welled up in his eyes. The blond walked up to his counterpart and embraced him in a hug. The counterpart looked shocked, before a smile came to his face, and dispersed into particles of light.

The blond watched the particles disappear into the sky. As he turned around, he saw a large, dark-skinned man looking at him, eyes obscured by a pair of sunglasses. The man motioned for the blond to follow him, and the blond complied.

The man walked past the blond, straight through the waterfall, and the blond followed after him. The scene before them was the inside of an ancient temple, ornamented by many golden sculptures and structures.

They kept walking, ignoring the many things around them, until the larger man came to a halt. He turned around and sat down, motioning for the blond to do the same. The man held out his fist, the blond, who did not understand the gesture at first, also held out his fist, making the two bump fists.

The surroundings changed to a golden, rainbow-colored chamber. The blond looked around him, but there was no sign of the large man who was with him just now. Out of nowhere, golden chains sprouted out of the ground, and formed a dome around him. A bright light appeared in the middle of the dome, so bright that blond had to close his eyes. As the light died down, the blond opened his eyes again, taking in the sight of a beautiful red-haired woman.

The women kindly smiled at him. He had a strange feeling, like he should know her somehow. The blond hesitantly took a step back, making a confused expression appear on the woman's face.

The blond stood still for a few seconds, before his eyes widened as realization hit him. Tears welled up in his eyes, the woman opened her arms, and the blond rushed towards her. He embraced her in a tight hug, while letting his tears freely flow from his eyes.

After a while, the blond felt a hand ruffling his hair. It belonged to a somewhat identical, but older man, who stood next to the woman, but before the blond could grasp what really happened, the man and woman started to fade away.

The blond desperately tried to grab on to them, but his attempts were futile. The man and woman only smiled at their legacy, entrusting the future to him, before completely disappearing, becoming one with the lights around them.

The blond stood there quietly, as if he was waiting for something to happen. A few tears came out of his eyes, but he smiled regardless.

The dome of chains started moving, and disappeared back into the ground. The blond was now in a sewer-like place. Rusty pipes ran across the ceiling and water came up to his ankles. He walked, like he knew where to go, through the hallways, coming out at an open space.

There was a large gate in front of him. He could also feel the ominous intent emanating from behind it.

A loud growl echoed through the area.

A large nine-tailed creature came out of the shadows from behind the bars, showing itself in full glory. The blond approached the creature without caution, till they were only a few feet apart, separated by the bars of the large gate.

The large creature grinned, showing his dangerously sharp teeth, holding out his fist through the bars. The blond – surprised by the action at first – grinned too, and bumped fists with the creature. The bars of the gate blasted open, the sewer started to crumble down and disappeared all together.

The blond was now surrounded by a familiar tree-filled forest. He placed his hand on his chest, at the place of his heart. He felt an inside glow, as bright as two suns, a prophecy passed on to him. He looked in front of him, seeing the sun shining brightly, illuminating all the shadows around him.

But there was a particular something that gave him a different warm feeling. It weren't the two suns inside of him and it wasn't the sun that was high up in the sky either, but it was close by. The blond placed one hand on the ground, taking in the force of nature, feeling everything around him.

Then he found it.

His eyes widened. His head was facing a specific direction now. He started walking towards it – picking up the pace – his walk turned into a light jog, and then into a full sprint. A sudden feeling of nostalgia washed over him, his stoic face threatened to turn into a smile, but he composed himself, albeit he didn't slow down.

Finally, he came into a wide clearing. A large tree was in the middle of it – the picture of a familiar twig flashed in his mind. The tree had no leaves, as if it was dead. Leaning against the tree was a figure, someone who the blond knew all too well, but the figure was completely white, like it lost its light.

The blond carefully approached the figure. With anxiousness overwhelming him and steps seemingly taking hours, a wave of relieve washed over the blond when he finally arrived at the base of the tree, where the figure was positioned.

He touched the figure, and past events made their way into the blond's mind. The bad and evil, the wicked and wrong, the wretched and malicious – almost overtaking him, but overpowered at the last moment by the good and well, the well-beloved and precious, the beautiful and exceptional.

All of these strengthening his strive to walk forward.

Color returned to the figure and a smile made its way onto the blond's face. The blond walked past the other young man and sat at the other side of the tree, the smile never leaving his face.

A white coat formed around him, adorned by fires and shadows, symbolizing his everlasting dream. The black-haired boy was now clad in black and green, and with a familiar piece of cloth around his head, displaying his vow to always protect the leaves.

The dead tree came to life once again.

Regrowth of leaves, setting forth a new era with a new generation. Rebirth of past glories, dignifying its title as the strongest.

All because after that first step, he always kept walking, the long road of life, which was void of any shortcuts.

Giving up wasn't in his dictionary, and till this day, it still isn't.

Because, to never give up...

...is his _N__indō_

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**AN:** So... yeah.

I intended to make this fic somewhat vague, but also to have it give off a clear message. That you have to keep walking forward no matter what – although it's easier said than done. But that is the never-give-up-attitude, right? It's Naruto's _nindō_, so I thought it would be a good _subject_ for this one-shot.


End file.
